Betfair Review & Ratings

Find out about the Betfair betting review ratings

Read our expert review of Betfair and the assessment of Betfair in all key aspects of online bookmakers
that are essential for a modern, professional and sound online football betting bookmaker.
That includes betting markets offered, odds, their website, in-play (live) betting opportunities, quality of
customer service and promotions.

4 Betfair

Introduction

It's not an exaggeration to say that betfair have revolutionised betting. It's hard to imagine life without the world's number one sports betting exchange, who launched in 2000 and have grown rapidly over the course of ten years. With headquarters in London, betfair was originally the concept of Andrew Black and Ed Wray, who set out to challenge traditional bookmakers by offering customers the chance to bet against each other rather than the house. Although it hasn't signalled the end of fixed-odds bookmakers, there's been plenty of room within a growing industry for betfair to thrive.

Betfair Review & Ratings

Betfair Odds

When talking about the odds, it should be noted that there are no traders at betfair who set the lines or create the margins. All the prices available on the site are created by fellow customers, so therefore the odds can be good and bad, depending on how much liquidity is available for a particular sporting event. If it's a Champions League football match, you can often find better odds on betfair than you would anywhere else, although you should always take into consideration that this operator will take up to 5% in commission from any winning bets. You will also find outsiders in horse races and golf tournaments to be available at bigger odds on betfair.

SCORE: 8 (out of 10)

Markets

Once again, we should look at this slightly differently on the basis that betfair simply set up the market and the general public fill it with prices. Naturally, it's in the exchange's interests to provide as many sports and betting opportunities as possible, although it's also a case of supply and demand. There are usually around thirty sports where markets are offered, with soccer, horse racing, cricket and tennis proving to be the ones which have the most coverage.

You can expect all the top soccer leagues to be covered and you'll find that the market range starts off with strong liquidity for offerings such as match odds, total goals, correct score, first goalscorer and Asian Handicap. For some of the more 'fringe' markets such as Hat-Trick Scored or Draw No Bet, you might struggle to get really tight margins, although there's a really neat selection of markets which cover many angles.

SCORE: 7 (out of 10)

Website

The betfair website is a work of art. Indeed, there can only be a handful of customers that use the website to the full potential. Placing bets in a regular fixed-odds fashion is just a small part of the betfair customer experience, with many people actually using the exchange to try their hand at being the bookmaker. Rather than back a team to win a particular match, many punters instead oppose a certain side and get the draw on their side as a result.

With a fixed-odds bookmaker, you need to back a winning selection to return a profit, although that's not the case when it comes to betfair. You can use the tools on the site to work out the margin you want to operate at, before striking a bet and speculating that the odds will get shorter so that you can 'close' the bet to make a profit whatever the final outcome is. The website is impressively fast considering how much data each page contains and it's something to marvel at.

SCORE: 10 (out of 10)

In-Play Betting at Betfair

Betfair can offer a live betting experience like no other fixed-odds bookmaker. This is because they don't have to worry about sharp customers taking advantage of having pictures with no delay or trying to steal an edge over the house. As mentioned above, this company simply sets up the markets and that extends to In-Play. It's just a question of them setting a market 'live' and allowing customers to battle it out as large sums of money are 'matched' on various markets.

The odds are updating every second and you can see how much is available at various prices. While betfair's In-Play service is particularly exciting for soccer, tennis and cricket, it's for the sport of horse racing where the website comes into its own. No fixed-odds firm can live with offering in-play betting on the entire field, although punters take their chances in a fast-paced environment and you often see customers winning at huge prices and losing at short odds!

SCORE: 10 (out of 10)

Betfair Customer Service

This isn't your normal betting service and betfair are particularly well-staffed to make sure that the many technical queries are dealt with. There is more chance that you might have a bet settlement query as the rules differ on certain markets at betfair due to the fact that it's player against player. The helpdesk is available on a 24/7 basis and betfair offer email and telephone support.

Betfair have been a breath of fresh air in the decade that they have been operating, offering customers a completely new way to enjoy betting. Never before have customers had the chance to 'be the bookie' and there are clearly great prices to be had. The website is a magnificent achievement, providing an interface where customers can match bets against each other. It's quite simply the ebay of betting.